Infants and other incontinent individuals wear disposable garments such as diapers to receive and contain urine and other body exudates. Disposable garments function either or both to contain the discharged materials and to isolate these materials from the body of the wearer, and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable garments having many different basic designs are known to the art. Examples of such disposable garments include disposable diapers (adult and baby) including pull-on diapers and training pants, disposable underwear, and disposable absorbent pads.
It is also known that the exterior of disposable garments may be covered with a flexible, liquid-impervious sheet to prevent any absorbed liquid from passing through the disposable garments and soiling adjacent articles such as clothing, bedding and the like. Such a liquid-impervious sheet is often constructed from polyethylene films and the like. While such sheets prevent liquid from passing through the disposable garment, such a plastic film tends to be uncomfortable for the wearer and/or user. A plastic film may possess insufficient moisture breathability and almost no air permeability, and may therefore cause wearers undesirable skin irritation.
One approach to provide a sufficient amount of moisture breathability is to use a microporous polyfilm. However, such an approach may provide only limited moisture breathability to wearers, sometimes less than 50% of the desired level, and still provide no or almost no air permeability.
Another approach is the use of nonwoven materials. See unexamined Japanese publication (kokai) H03-240151, filed on Feb. 16, 1990, by Asahi Kasei Kogyo, which discloses sanitary materials comprising a melt-blown nonwoven liquid-impermeable sheet made of fine fibers having an average diameter of from 0.5 to 2.5 μm. Although a sheet having such small fibers may retain liquid within the garment, such a sheet does not possess the desired level of air permeability, because the pores are too small. The sheet also tends to lower a tensile strength.
Based on the foregoing, the need exists for a disposable garment having a nonwoven backsheet formed by melt-blowing, which can provide desirable moisture breathability, desirable air permeability, and a tensile strength sufficient for converting to make disposable garments.